By Jessica Mathews / news@whmi.com


Amendments put forth by Livingston County’s congresswoman addressing PFAS contamination, supply chain vulnerabilities, and toxic burn pit exposure were signed into law as part of the bi-partisan 2022 budget for the Department of Defense.

President Joe Biden signed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) into law Monday, which will fund the Pentagon and the U.S. military for the coming year.

The provisions submitted by 8th District Democratic Representative Elissa Slotkin, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, will increase reporting of PFAS contamination, reinforce supply chains for defense equipment, expand burn pit exposure assistance for American veterans, and strengthen the U.S.’s cybersecurity infrastructure.

A press release states Slotkin also voted for amendments to increase the Pentagon’s overall budget by $25 (B) billion to help maintain a competitive edge over rivals like China and to give service members a 2.7% pay raise.

Slotkin served three tours in Iraq alongside the military as a CIA intelligence analyst, and was later a top official at the Department of Defense. This past spring, she led a bi-partisan task force to examine vulnerabilities in the national security supply chains and made subsequent amendments to the NDAA to begin addressing them.

Slotkin commented “Our national defense should always be a bipartisan priority, and as a former Pentagon official, I firmly believe Congress has a solemn responsibility to pass a budget that values our men and women in uniform and ensures we can maintain our edge over competitors like China and Russia. I’m particularly pleased that my amendments to address supply chain vulnerabilities, PFAS contamination, and burn pit exposure among our veterans, have all been included. These three issues are examples of just how deeply Michigan is connected to our overall national security, and addressing them is critically important to our access to clean drinking water, our veterans’ safety, and our domestic manufacturing.”

More information about the individual provisions is available in the attached press release.